Creatively Ramping Up Business and Joining Agencies

The financial situation in my household changed today terribly and unexpectedly, so now my face painting money is really going to count. As the well known phrase goes "when life hands you lemons, get out and paint!" Haha

I work 10-6 Monday to Friday, so have to bear that in mind but have contacted all the local Christmas fairs I can find locally. My face painting business is only a few months old. The local council already has a regular painter so that rules out a few things and our market won't accept a face painter! I live 45 mins outside of London so have a city full of potential but a lot of very brilliant competition and I was wondering if anyone one had any unusual places they get business from? I want to get creative with who I approach!

I am also thinking of signing up to some agencies but people seem to not have too many great experiences with them, or is that just horror stories?

Maybe some of the other face painters would have some run-off business? I know in my area I turn away a lot of jobs each weekend & send business to my local face paint peeps(I love that I'm finally getting face paint peeps... it's been a long struggle, but I'm so happy to have finally met some like minded friends that understand my face paint language ).

I envy that you have peeps Linda!

Not sure if you are meaning London, as in England...if you have a Craigs list or something like it, you could do a search of "events" and find some Christmas Craft shows looking for vendors. In my area, we have tons of churches who hold them every weekend, and the booth rent is pretty affordable.

I hope things look up soon.

My experience with agencies (three to date) as been: 1 good, 2 bad. What I've learned is that there are probably good booking agents out there who are interested in establishing and maintaining a win-win working relationship with their service providers, but finding them is the tricky part.

What I will not do in the future EVER is to book my time out without a non-refundable deposit. At least until or unless I have established trust in them. Cancelled bookings at the last minute as you are walking out the door is not okay, especially if you've had to turn away viable gigs that may have come along after you got that on calendar. So, yeah. CASH IN HAND, or no booking. Period.

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I've been wondering for some time now what kind of Holiday Craft Shows, Fairs, Bazaars or whatever are worth the booth fee & time spent. If any of you veterans have done these type of events, would you be wiling to share your experience with us?

What criteria do you have for choosing which ones of these events to plug into? Do you have a minimum ATTENDANCE you look for in an event? What is the max. you'll pay for booth space per day?

Any tips or guidance you have to offer would be greatly appreciated. I plan on taking any and all marketing-type classes offered at FPBA, but any advice in the meantime would be great!

Also - any experience doing "regulars" like restaurants, skating rinks, night clubs, etc.? If so, what and how does that work for you?

Finally - anyone do any shopping malls? I've heard Heather of SF mention that she worked/works "the mall". I wonder how that works?

So many questions! Thanks for any guidance you have to offer. I appreciate this forum so much - it's all of you who make it such an extraordinary community of support. THANKS for helping me grow everyone!

Yes I'm on London UK, so there is a help of a lot of awesome competition but its also a big ol' city! Iv done our equivalent of Craigslist list and have had some offers of booths back, I've checked with them all that I would be the only face painter. But as Manja asked I would be interested to know what your criteria is before paying out for a booth at an event?

It is kind of a crap shoot for picking craft shows. I have been lucky with the craft shows at schools, especially if you can find one with a school based talent compnent (I have one that is great that has the kids on and off the stage in the gym, doing all kinds of things like playing the piano and dancing) It also has a kids craft show attatched to it, on part of the school is reserved just for kids to set up their own booths, so for three hours, they are selling crafts too. It is packed with kids. This is the biggest craft show I have, and I litterally could not paint any faster. My daughter tattoos the entire 5 hours straight, I have hired two of her friends to help out, one more to do more tattos, and a second to do hair feather extensions (something new, riding that trend because I was able to find fishing tackel hackel feathers for 8.95 a bunch from a sporting goods store, it would not be profitable if you order the hair feather extensions made by someone else, they run that much for one bunch of feathers, in each bundle, I got about 75 feathers)

I look for children's attractions and traffic, or very low booth rent so that I will not be out anything if it turns out to be one that I scratch off my list. My experience, School based-good if the parent teacher organization is raising money, if they are not painting themselves, you will find kids there that need something to do. Churches, so-so, but do call and ask about the traffic and look for kid activities, like crafts, etc...if they have those, you will find a better show for you because kids should be there. And low booth rent is a plus, especially if you can find a very inexpensive add on, like painting a ring or a bracelt that takes you zero time, and price it low...then maybe pay a helper to do this...or hire a teen to do glitter tats...price them resonably, and then you are maiking more than twice the moeny, because you are painting and earning while that other person is doing tats...more than three or four for every face you paint! Have some really pretty bling masks to up sell, and paint your helper or yourself with it, and get a few kids out there with your stuff on it ASAP(do some freebies rather than to sit) and it will be busy from the get go if there are children in the house. They are looking for something to do, and you may be the only game in town (at least that is the hope!)

Call and talk to the craft show organizers. Something else I do, is if I don't ahve something booked, I look for last minute placement...sometimes, if they have space left, they will let it go for less than the full booth rent, but this is less profitable for me (this usually means a slow show) than it is for festivals (usually very good, small booth rent over several days= good profit, even if you are slower than you want to be) but the low booth rent, short time of a craft show means that you paint a handful of kids, and you break even, sometimes before the first hour is up.

My two cents.

A Face Painting Mom, That is so helpful. thankyou for taking the time to write that!

I am talking to a lady about a Community Christmas Craft fair with a grotto, Children's crafts etc. Booth is pretty pricey at GBP £25 and it's for 6 hours and is on a busy High Street in London. After reading your comments I have gone back for information on advertising and previous attendance.

Thanks again!

My criteria:
I ask the organizers how many year old the event is & what previous attendance has been(I like 10,000 or more in attendance events best). Who are they marketing too(if it's all older people, then there won't be a lot of kids)? Do they have a kids zone? Are there other's face painting(paid vendors & free not-for-profit groups). I've not had too much trouble w/ the free groups hurting my income. The level of face painting I'm competing with is non-existent & most people that get the free stuff wouldn't have paid for me to paint them anyway.

If I have nothing else to do & the craft show is in an area I want to break into I might go paint & take the "loss". I usually walk away from a small festival with about $100-$200 for a days work(not a good take when you look at it for an hourly rate). I know going in it is really an advertising op & not to make money. Big festivals I will come away with $1000+ a day(this is with me & my daughter painting). These are the ones I shoot for.

Festivals are hard work, but can pay off(especially if you want to market to that area). Hand out cards LIKE CRAZY!

That is so true Linda. One tip, if you don't have paint removal instructions on the back of your cards, get some mailing lables and print them up, then stick them to the back of your card. I have my husband line wrangle and hand every painted kids parent a card.

I have luck with the smaller shows with low booth rent, and good kid traffic. It is not as good as being booked at my hourly rate, it is a lot of work, but I always get bookings later, and when I am not booked already, it is better than not working (especially since I take most of my family with me, so it is not time without them.) I book some in advance (the ones I know I have good luck with in the past) and then try to book a little late (and try to negotiate even better booth rates) if I don't pick up bookings for the day. Most craft shows will end by 4 or so, and you have your Saturday evening for a party or event. I have Saturday like that on the 3rd...from craft show, to Salon event. Then sleep on Sunday, for sure! I love days like that though.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, ladies! Knowing what to look for and what to expect really helps narrow things down a bit.

Any experience with the "regulars" like weekly or monthly restaurant gigs? How to negotiate those - like do you offer a reduced rate since it's a steady thing with advertising or??